Cardiac Cavs do it again

Friday, February 2nd 2007, 6:46 am

By: News On 6

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) _ Dave Leitao's rebuilding job at Virginia is progressing nicely. The second-year coach asked his team for a progress report against No. 8 Duke, and he had to love its answer.

Sean Singletary capped a regulation-ending 10-2 run with a jumper that tied it with 24.8 seconds left Thursday night, then hit a falling, one-handed floater with a second left in overtime to give the drama-loving Cavaliers a rousing 68-66 victory.

``The first thing and last thing I told them when we got to the (overtime) was, `I'm going to look all five of you guys in the eyes and you're going to tell me by what I see if we're going to win the game or not,''' Leitao said after Virginia's fifth straight win. ``They showed me something that made me think we're going to be OK.''

No. 5 UCLA beat ninth-ranked Oregon 69-57 and No. 18 Washington State defeated No. 20 Arizona 72-66 in the only other Top 25 games Thursday night.

For Virginia, once again it was Singletary (17 points) and J.R. Reynolds (20 of his 25 in the second half) that carried the offensive load, but they had help when it mattered.

In the overtime, where the Cavaliers (14-6, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) never trailed, Mamadi Diane got a tough rebound and putback to give them a 65-63 lead.

Jason Cain, who fouled out in overtime, had six points and 10 rebounds in 39 minutes and played solid defense on Josh McRoberts, even though he scored 19 points for Duke (18-4, 5-3).

Others contributed, too, but the guard tandem was dazzling, again, just as it has been throughout the winning streak for the Cavaliers, who are locked in a three-way tie for second in the conference with Boston College and Virginia Tech.

Singletary's jumper to tie it in regulation was his first basket in nearly 16 minutes, only because Reynolds was doing all the scoring. Reynolds had scored the first eight points of the game-tying run, including a 6-for-6 showing at the foul line.

But Reynolds was sidelined by cramps, and Singletary gladly took his turn.

``J.R. basically carried us through the whole game,'' he said.

And then Singletary won it with his acrobatic move to the basket, a move that was reminiscent of a similar play he made when Virginia beat No. 20 Arizona earlier this season.

``I got bumped and to catch my balance, I had to get off my feet,'' Singletary said of the shot over the 6-foot-10 McRoberts from the right side of the basket.

The Cavaliers, who trailed 59-51 with 3:42 left in regulation, pulled off their second highly improbable comeback in five days.

On Saturday at Clemson, they erased a 16-point deficit in the last 9 minutes, winning on a tip-in by Jason Cain with 15.5 seconds left. And this time, Reynolds scored the first eight points in a 10-2 run to end regulation, and Singletary tied it.

The overtime ending left even Duke's players shaking their heads. The Blue Devils had won nine in a row against Virginia and led almost the entire night.

``It was a crazy, tough shot,'' DeMarcus Nelson said of the game-winner, which ended with Singletary on the floor. ``We couldn't have made him make a tougher shot.''

Singletary's heroics still had to survive challenges at the buzzer _ twice.

In regulation, McRoberts missed a driving attempt in the final seconds to bring about the overtime, and in the extra period, Greg Paulus' 3-pointer at the buzzer bounced hard off the rim, bringing hundreds of students rushing onto the court.

``We had some shots, including the one at the end of regulation, that were great shots. We just didn't knock them down,'' Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

The Blue Devils had their five-game conference winning streak snapped.

No. 5 UCLA 69, No. 9 Oregon 57

At Los Angeles, Arron Afflalo scored 17 points and UCLA shot 57 percent to gain sole possession of first place in the Pac-10.

The Bruins (19-2, 8-2) have won 16 consecutive games at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA and the Ducks (19-3, 7-3) came in tied atop the conference standings.

The victory avenged UCLA's 68-66 loss at Oregon _ its first of the season _ on Jan. 6 that knocked the Bruins out of the nation's No. 1 ranking.

Bryce Taylor scored 17 points for Oregon.

No. 18 Washington State 72, No. 20 Arizona 66

At Tucson, Ariz., Ivory Clark scored 18 points and Washington State swept the season series from Arizona for the first time since 1983.

Washington State (18-4, 7-3 Pac-10) won for only the fourth time in 48 games against Arizona coach Lute Olson.

Chase Budinger scored 19 points and Mustafa Shakur added 13 for Arizona (14-7, 5-5), which lost for the sixth time in eight games.